Achieving the commercialisation and mass market rollout of new sanitation technologies involves development in controlled laboratory and field settings, operational testing in real world environments and verification testing and design validation of the finished product. The Sanitation Prototype Field-Testing Platform is designed to expose sanitation technologies to real world conditions early in their development by testing prototypes in informal settlements and rural households in Durban, South Africa. Between 2017 and 2020, nearly 20 prototype technologies have been tested on this platform. The concentration of prototypes being tested in a single location allows resources and expertise to be pooled.
The Durban-based platform team liaises with technology developers to establish the developer’s needs for a testing site, including the requirements for location (household, community, school or university setting), number of users, space, infrastructure, access and security. Potential sites that fit these specifications and that are in need of improved sanitation are identified in conjunction with municipal officials. Comprehensive community engagement processes follow including a baseline social survey at the selected site.
Site preparation includes design development and the appointment and supervision of contractors for site preparation. Support is provided with the logistics of importing and transporting prototypes to and within Durban. Technology developers undertake the installation and commissioning of the technology, with support from the local project team. Ongoing support is provided by PRG for logistics, sampling, process testing, operation and maintenance, and collecting feedback on the systems.
The process testing phase has a clearly defined exit strategy, which includes decommissioning of the system, returning the testing site to its original (or better) condition and a closeout social study.
